Revelations
by HoneyBunch
Summary: When Raven feels empty and alone, she talks to Beast Boy about it. As she continues talking to him, she realizes he is a true friend, and maybe more. BBxRae, slight RobxStar. [9.12.05 Update: Chp. 3 is up]
1. Chapter One

Hi. This is my first fanfic.

I'm a big fan of Teen Titans, but I've missed a few shows here and there. So if something doesn't quite match up with the show, chalk it up either to that or to my bad memory. If you tell me, I might decide to correct. Or not, if I'm feeling lazy.

I'd like to believe that my spelling and grammar is perfect, but I know it's not. If you find any mistakes, tell me about them. I'll appreciate it. If you notice that I put a conjunction or a "because" at the beginning of a sentence, I know it's wrong and I do it anyway, so there's no need to tell me about it.

I like Raven, and I like BB. I feel that despite their discrepancies, they'd be good together. If you can't handle that, you probably shouldn't read the fic.

If you feel like reviewing, go ahead. I promise I'll read it, although I won't promise to answer. If you want to flame, you're welcome to it. However, I'd appreciate it if you try to tell me what I did wrong, rather than just deriding the story as a whole. In fact, constructive criticism is always welcome. I'd rather have a truthful and harsh review than one that was simple, unadulterated praise. Criticism, no matter how harsh, can help me improve my writing, while praise will just help my ego.

If you see anything that you don't like, criticize it, please! If it sounds harsh, good! That probably means it's honest!

Finally, I don't own Teen Titans. I guess I should say that. Everyone else does.

**Chapter One**  
Realization

The common room of the Tower was busy. Beast Boy and Cyborg were playing video games (some shooter about monsters and demons that had somehow gotten _everything_ wrong. Demons being killed with bullets was patently ridiculous). Starfire was making some kind of emotion pudding, and Robin was busy in his lair. Raven was contentedly ignoring it all, sitting in the shadowed corner of the room, entranced by the last chapter of her book.

Raven sighed regretfully as she finished her book. She had enjoyed it, but for whatever reason, it left her feeling empty.

Empty. She concentrated on her emotion, allowed it to play freely inside her mind, trying all the while to identify the source and the scope of this feeling. It eluded her briefly, but with her practiced dispassion and self-observation, she cornered it – forced it to divulge its origin. It was loneliness.

She realized that, in her books, the characters always had companions. At the very least, they had someone who enjoyed their company, enjoyed being with them. Often they had friends, people that they could share most any thought or feeling with openly and freely.

Raven realized, with a sudden tinge of sadness and longing, that she didn't. Despite her abilities as an empath, she lacked anyone she felt a strong affinity for, who she connected with. She had no one with whom she could share her feelings with. No one she even fraternized with. She thought Robin had been someone she could freely share her feelings with, but realized, on reflection, that she had been deceiving herself. Whenever she had shared her emotions with Robin, it had been brought on by necessity, not empathy. Even worse, Robin never reciprocated, never confided his feelings to her. He was always at a distance. Starfire, on the other hand, was simply too alien and optimistic to understand Raven. Cyborg was too open, too practical about his emotions sympathize with her, and Beast Boy was just too _annoying_.

Almost as if to confirm her thoughts, a green hand waved across her field of view. "_Helloo_. Earth to Raven. Come on, you coming to dinner or not?" said Beast Boy.

She simply glared at him for a second, then replied, "I might be a little more eager if it wasn't you cooking."

He made a "hmpff" sound, and stalked off without a backward glance. Raven relaxed out of the meditation posture she had unconsciously fallen into, and followed, gliding a few yards behind him.

-----

Beast Boy took the sarcasm as he usually did, with an internal sadness and an exaggerated show of annoyance to hide how much it hurt.

He sat down across the table from Raven, taking a moment as he did so to glance at her eternally stoic face. It was as beautiful and guarded as always.

Why couldn't she return just a little bit of the affection he felt for her? Why couldn't she show him she liked him?

Maybe it's because she doesn't.

His mind immediately rejected the idea, not because it was impossible, but because he didn't want to accept it.

But if she _did_ like him, he asked himself, why wouldn't she show it? Was she afraid? Maybe she didn't want the other Titans to find out. Or maybe she didn't want to like him, but did anyway. Or maybe… maybe she really _doesn't_ like me. Maybe she thinks I'm too annoying, or too messy, or too _ugly_.

No, not too ugly. No way she thinks I'm _ugly_. Annoying maybe, messy yeah, but no way could she think I'm ugly.

Maybe it's her powers. Aren't they controlled by emotion? So maybe she likes me, but she can't admit it? But she could at least tell me she thought my jokes were funny, or _something_.

Then he realized he wasn't getting anywhere, that he had let his pasta get cold, and that he had distractedly dropped a forkful of it onto his pants. He decided that he wasn't hungry enough to reheat the pasta and excused himself. He got up to go to his room and get the tomato sauce off his pants, noting as he went that Raven had already left.

-----

Raven had finished her pasta only minutes earlier, and had gone up to her room to meditate. At least, that had been her intention. When she put the book down on her bed, however, she remembered what she had been thinking about – and feeling.

She really was alone here. Her four teammates were allies, not friends. She could share her struggles with them, all the ones except those that happened inside. There was only one person who had ever loved her, and her mother had been gone for years. Since then, she had never stopped being alone.

Suddenly her dresser shot across the room. Her mirror shattered into a shower of glass, and one of her pillows exploded.

Raven lay slowly down on her bed, tears welling up in her eyes.

-----

As Beast Boy passed the door to Raven's room, he heard a crash and the sound of shattering glass. He rushed in to see if anything was wrong and saw Raven lying face down on her bed, feathers sprinkled over her body. He didn't see anyone else there, and when he heard her muffled crying, he realized what had happened.

Beast Boy ran over and asked, "Raven, are you okay?" laying a hand on her shoulder.

The crying stopped immediately, and Raven quickly glanced up. "Beast Boy?" she said, rather incredulously.

"Um, yeah. I was walking by your room and I heard a crash."

She stared at him for a moment. Her sarcasm reasserting itself, she was tempted to tell him she had just been thinking about the sorry state of his jokes, but something about his nature made her hold back.

Instead, she replied simply, "That was me."

"Yeah, I kind of thought so," Beast Boy said as carefully as he could, trying his utmost not to annoy her. "You were crying. Care to tell me what it was about?"

"No."

"Are you sure? I mean…" he stopped when she gave him a nasty glare. "Never mind. Sorry," he said with a sigh. He got up and moved to the door.

As he left, Raven felt strangely regretful. With a swiftness and surety that only she possessed, she found the cause of her distress.

As she examined her emotion, she suddenly recalled Beast Boy's journey into her mirror. He had seemed so concerned for her then. She thought about how he had helped her fight back her raging father, and how he had found out that she thought his jokes were funny. She remembered how she had embraced Beast Boy after the betrayal of Malchior, how much it had hurt her when he had called her a freak. He had called her a freak. That wasn't exactly the type of thing she would want a friend to do.

Maybe it was. That was exactly what Robin hadn't been able to give her, and exactly what she needed. She needed someone who could be as honest with her as she needed to be with him, someone who could allow themselves to open up. It would be nice if he hadn't been so blunt about it, though.

In short, Beast Boy was exactly what she needed, no matter how annoying he might be at times.

As he walked to the door, she spoke up.

"Beast Boy… wait," she said, quietly.

"Raven?" he asked.

"Beast Boy, I – I do want to talk," she said. She quickly added a disclaimer, "That is, I do if you want to listen."

"I'm always ready to listen," he replied. Seeing her give him a tiny smile, he said, "Well, I guess you have to catch me at the right moment."

Raven decided to be upfront about it. "Beast Boy, you've been inside my mirror. You met my emotions." Beast Boy nodded at this, and Raven continued, "I don't know if you realize this, but in most people, emotions are not so distinct. They are part of a greater whole."

Beast Boy's eyes widened slightly at this, not sure what to make of what Raven was saying. "So… you mean your emotions aren't… aren't part of you?"

"They are, but they're distant. I keep them… removed from me because they affect my powers. I force them away so that I can keep watch on them, make sure that they aren't acting in a way that could make me or my powers go out of control."

She sighed. "Doing this has some side effects. Because my emotions are distant they are kept in check – but it also means that I can have a hard time figuring out what they're trying to tell me."

Beast Boy was interested, "So? What _have_ they been trying to tell you?"

"They've been telling me that I've been too… alone. Too solitary. They've been telling me that I need someone to talk to."

"I'm here for you. We're all here for you. Just let us know what you need us to do. Just let me know."

"Thanks, Beast Boy. For now, listening was enough, and I appreciate it. But if you don't mind, I'd like to get some sleep."

Beast Boy got up and started walking for the door, saying, "Sure thing. And since you're in such a friendly mood, maybe you can tell me how funny you think my jokes are."

Raven grinned. "Don't push your luck," she replied as he headed out the door.

Raven smiled. She'd made the right decision by coming to Beast Boy after all. Despite his antics, he was just who she'd needed to talk to.

-----

Outside her room, Beast Boy was amazed and ecstatic that he'd managed not to screw anything up. He'd just been in Raven's room! No one went in Raven's room!

She really needed to redecorate.


	2. Chapter Two

Hi. This is still my first fanfic, but now it's the second chapter. Exciting, eh?

If you find anything to criticize, _please do_. Constructive criticism is much more valuable than flames or even praise. If you feel the need to flame, however, please do. I'm tough, I can take it. If you want to praise, that's very welcome. No matter how constructive the criticism, it still doesn't do anything for my ego.

I still don't own Teen Titans and I still don't know if I really have to say that, but everybody else persists in doing so and I wouldn't want to rock the boat.

_Firenze2000:_ Yeah, I think Raven's almost embarrassed to admit to liking Beast Boy. She sees him as being very childish. He is, but mostly it's a façade to hide his own insecurity.

_Anony Miss:_ A bit played out? I can see where you're coming from. Personally, I feel that a lot of the fics I've read have rushed the relationships to fruition. When other fics do that, it just ruins the story for me, because it makes it impossible for me to believe in the relationship. So I take my time. It might seem a little slow, but at least it'll be believable (I hope so, anyway).

_Invader Johnny:_ Long reviews are good, because it means you care enough about the story to criticize it and try to help me improve it. The reason I didn't do BB and Raven POV was because POVs always seemed messy to me. Either the writer has to label them with **"Begin/End Character POV"** or he has to take the risk that the switch won't confuse the reader. I prefer omniscient third person, because it allows me to show what the characters are thinking but doesn't confine me to one character, as first person was. As for Beast Boy being OOC, I really didn't think that he was. See the Author's Note before the beginning of this chapter for my take on Beast Boy and Raven.

_Wolf-blades-wings:_ No, not a one-shot. Those always leave me unsatisfied when I read them, so I don't see how I could possibly be content with writing one. I'd hate to leave you guys thinking, "Yeah, but what happens _after_?" So I won't. I'll write this thing out 'till it's over and done with.

_IGAF-kun:_ Thank you.

_Overactive Mind:_ Actually, I'm using Word, so I do have spell check. Spell check isn't perfect, though. For example, if I were to use the word groin where I meant to use the word grin, spell check wouldn't catch it. And I'm pretty sure that you don't want to read anything like, "When Cyborg beat Robin's car to the finish line, a groin spread slowly across his face." Not an altogether pleasing image, right? So if you catch anything like that, please make sure to tell me. Anyway, I'm glad you like the story.

_Funk'dup:_ Thanks.

_Regrem Erutaerc:_ Thank you! I'd be happy to make you able to review without logging in, but then I wouldn't get to snoop around your profile, and that would make me unhappy. Sorry. About the emotional wisdom bit, was that directed at me or at Invader Johnny? If you were talking to me, I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. As for Raven's emotions… it's been done before. I mean, at least half the Raven/BB fanfics I've read involve her emotions. Some dealt with her emotions as much or more than with Raven herself. I'm not going to steer clear of that altogether, because it's an important part of Raven, but they're not going to be coming out of the mirror, and BB/Raven are going to be spending very limited time there. BB will have to love Raven as a whole person, not as her separated emotional facets. I'm not saying that they won't be in the story, but they'll be the supporting characters rather than the stars of the show.

_Tammy Tamborine:_ Good. I'm glad you like it. Thanks for the ego-boost.

_fernnu:_ I know what you mean. Everybody else seems to think that NJ is exactly like _The Sopranos_. And the story alerts I get make me feel all fuzzy inside.

_endless fate:_ I appreciate your praise, but I don't think I'm a great writer. Mighty good, maybe, but not great. Mark Twain was great. Charles Dickens was great. I'm just good, at best. But for now, I'm content with that. Thank you for the review!

**Author's Note:** Much like Raven, Beast Boy finds it hard to show that he cares about someone. The difference is, Raven tries to mask her emotions with apathy, while Beast Boy tries to mask his with humor. Raven shies away from social interaction because she fears rejection (not to mention her powers going haywire), while Beast Boy tries overly hard to make friends and be accepted. I've read lots of stuff at the Titan's Tower website (it's a website that provides a good basic storyline of the original comics). If you look at Beast Boy's origin from the original comics, you'll see that he's experienced betrayal and loss many times, both before and during his time with the Titans. So he acts immature, but in actuality, his immaturity is just a façade. Raven's emotionally scared as well, although she shows it differently than Beast Boy does. When they talked in the first chapter, both those façades were temporarily dropped, allowing them to express themselves openly. They're not acting out of character; they're just displaying facets of the characters that are rarely seen on the show.

**Chapter 2**

The next morning, Raven took her eyes off her book to glance around the common room as she took a long sip of her tea. She noticed that Cyborg was beating Robin horribly at some racing game. Beast Boy was reading some book, and Starfire was whipping up one of… wait.

Beast Boy was reading? She looked back in his direction, and saw that he was really reading a book. Amazing. Will wonders never cease?

-----

Robin, meanwhile, threw down his controller in disgust. "Cyborg, one of these days I'm going to beat you."

Cyborg replied, "Doubt it. BB plays _tons_ better than you, and he only beats me maybe once a month."

Robin, realizing that arguing would be useless and that a rematch would just be embarrassing, decided to call it quits. He stood up. "Okay guys, time for training. I'm going to be sparring with Cyborg. Raven, you'll be trying to get full control over your time-stopping abilities again. Starfire, work on target practice with your starbolts. Your aim's been a little off lately. Beast Boy, you're going to be working on transforming into whatever dinosaurs you haven't covered yet."

Beast Boy replied, "I've already got all the good ones down, dude."

"Fine, work on something else. Just don't fool around. It was disturbing enough the _first_ time I saw a sperm whale appear in the middle of the training room."

-----

As the team headed towards the training area, Beast Boy noticed Raven was walking to his side, with her hood down. Usually, she trailed a few yards behind everybody.

"Beast Boy, what were you reading back there?" Raven asked him.

"What, surprised I know how?" Beast Boy retorted.

"Frankly, yes, a little," Raven answered, honestly.

Beast Boy gave her an annoyed look and said, "It's called _Fast Food Nation_. This guy did all this research into where meat comes from and stuff. I mean, we buy it at the grocery store and everything, but the food or whatever, it was a cow or something sometime, right? So he found out about the factories and stuff." Raven nodded. Beast Boy was really getting into this speech. "And the factories, they treat the animals like crap, you know? And they treat the employees like crap too. People have gotten seriously messed up in the factory equipment, and McDonald's doesn't get in trouble because they just blame it on the company that owns the factory, right?" At this point, Beast Boy was sermonizing. He was moving his arms around to illustrate his point. Raven had to admit, he seemed like he knew what he was talking about. "And it's not just McDonald's or anything. I mean, they're the worst, but all the fast food places do it, and even the supermarkets. Most people just don't care, though. That's what really ticks me off." He noticed Raven looking at him quizzically. "What?"

"You know your stuff," Raven said, sounding impressed.

Beast Boy looked annoyed again. "Of course I do. Why do you think I'm a vegan?"

Raven shrugged her shoulders beneath her cloak. "I guess I just assumed that you thought it was disgusting," she answered.

Beast Boy replied, "Well, yeah, I do. I mean, if you could turn into a chicken, you wouldn't be munching eggs at breakfast either. But still, that's not the only reason. I eat tofu and stuff because I think it's the right thing to do. Plus it tastes better."

"Could I borrow the book after you're done with it?" Raven asked Beast Boy.

Beast Boy looked surprised. "Sure, sure. You can borrow it today, if you want to," replied Beast Boy.

"No rush," said Raven.

"Um, yeah. Sure. I'll tell you when I'm done with it," Beast Boy said.

"You know, you should do this more often," Raven told him.

"Do what?" asked Beast Boy.

"Use your brain when you talk, instead of relying solely on your mouth. It makes conversations a lot more interesting."

Before Beast Boy had time to respond, Raven had slowed her walk and drifted behind the green titan, effectively ending the conversation.

-----

Beast Boy, meanwhile, was doing everything he could to hide his glee.

He'd already read _Fast Food Nation_. It was a big part of what had convinced him to go vegetarian. But Raven didn't even know he _could_ read books, so he'd decided he'd show her.

And she said he was interesting! He couldn't remember her ever saying that about anything before, except for that documentary about mosquitoes that Starfire had made them watch, and that had been more to avoid hurting Starfire's feelings than because she had actually found it interesting. Of course, she had said he didn't use his brain to talk, and that wasn't such a good thing. At least she thought he was interesting sometimes! Not very often, but sometimes was good! At least, it was better than none of the time. Which was probably what she thought before she talked to him about the book. Actually, she probably still thought so. After all, she _was_ Raven, and there was no way Raven could possibly think Beast Boy was smart.

Crap.

-----

Meanwhile, Raven was still grappling with the fact that Beast Boy could actually handle a book. For some reason, he didn't strike her as the intellectual type.

Still, she was impressed. She hadn't expected him to have a plausible reason for being vegetarian; the only rationale he'd ever given for not eating meat was that it was "gross."

Maybe Beast Boy was smarter than she thought.

Of course, he had tried to tell her yesterday that _escargot_ was a NASCAR race. He had to be a moron.

-----

The training session had drained her. Raven had meditated diligently for an hour, but hadn't gotten anywhere. Of course, she hadn't been trying to get anywhere, but she couldn't explain that to Robin. He was a great leader, but he was obsessed with enhancing his own ability, as well that of his teammates. There was no way that Raven would possibly tell him that she wasn't really trying to master her abilities, and no way he'd understand her reasons even if she told him. _Nobody_ would understand. Everybody else was perfectly content with their lives, their powers. They didn't have to deal with being demon spawn. Even the meditation hadn't helped take her mind off things.

A knock came on her door, breaking her train of thought.

"Hey, Raven? Are you in there?" Beast Boy said, hopefully.

She got up. As she walked toward the door, he knocked again.

Raven opened the door a crack, allowing one of her eyes to see outside. "Yes?" she asked Beast Boy, sounding annoyed.

"Did I do something to you?" Beast Boy asked, confused and a little put off by her attitude.

Raven just stared at him.

"Could you let me in?" he asked, getting a little annoyed at Raven's insensitivity.

She gave in. "Fine. Just don't touch anything." Raven opened the door wide enough to let him in, turned around and started to walk away from him towards her bed.

Beast Boy, meanwhile, was getting royally pissed off by her attitude. "Thanks the warm welcome, dude," he said bitterly.

Raven sighed. She turned around. "Look Beast Boy, I'm tired and cranky, okay? Whatever it is you want from me, now is not the time."

"I do _not_ want anything– whatever, you know what, it's just not worth it. Here, take the freaking thing, so I can get out of here and stop wasting your valuable time." At this he pushed something at here, and started toward the door.

As he left the room, he stopped and turned his head around for a second. "You know Raven, people might like you a little better if you said 'Thank you' sometimes." Then he was gone.

Raven looked down at the book in her hands. You blew it, Raven. Way to go.

Damn it.

She looked out of her room down the hall, but Beast Boy had already left.

**Author's Note:** Yeah, it's about 400 words shorter than the last one. Yeah, I didn't update very fast. You can handle it. I write whatever and whenever I feel like writing, so the frequency and length of my chapters isn't going to be steady. I will keep 'em coming, though. It'll only get slower, however, with school starting on Wednesday. Trust me, I like it even less than you do.

Anyhow, they got mad at each other. Yeah, it's not very romantic, but it is completely in character, and I can't just dive into the romance unless the characters get there naturally. Beast Boy and Raven having a tiff is _completely_ natural, so I wrote it. After all, as much as I like Raven, she would be really hard to get along with. At least, not if you're trying to get to know her, which is what Beast Boy is trying to do now.

By the way, _escargot_ is a French dish constituted primarily of snails. It's pronounced es -car -go. I know it's not the greatest anecdote of Beast Boy's stupidity, but it was the best one I could think up. If you come up with a better one, tell me and I might use it, either to replace the one in this chapter or in another future chapter.

Yeah, Raven's having some trouble with her powers. You'll find out later.

I'm done. That's all I have to say for now.

No, really, buzz off. I don't want you here. Stop reading.

Toodle-oo!


	3. Chapter Three

It's chapter number three now.

Flames are accepted, praise is welcomed, and criticism is greatly appreciated. 

From now on, any reviews that can be summed up as "great story!" will be responded to as a group. I'm not trying to be mean. I sincerely appreciate your compliments, but my reviews response section was a little fat last chapter and I have to put it on a diet.

Every other review I will continue to respond to individually.

The Teen Titans obstinately persist in not being owned by me, much to my chagrin.

**Review Responses:**

_Overactive Mind:_ Took you a few readovers? Eh, that's probably not good. I hope it wasn't overly confusing.

_fernnu:_ Your work is by no means done, my friend! Keep reviewing or else my insides may start to feel like a porcupine instead of a teddy bear, and that sounds decidedly unpleasant! So review for the sake of my innards! Anyway, I think that Raven's chilly exterior will be melting away in coming chapters. It may be slow, but it will happen. I'm half-Irish, by the way. I have the freckles to prove it.

_Regrem Erutaerc:_ You'll see what she does. Thanks for the compliment.

_xNO TOFU FOR YOUx:_ It's a great book. In fact, it's my all-time favorite nonfiction book. I no longer eat at fast food restaurants because of that book. I'm not a vegetarian, but only because of the effort it would take to become one while I'm living with my family. I definitely respect vegetarians.

_Teleportal:_ I agree with you. Beast Boy isn't as stupid as he seems.

_Half-Gothic Chick:_ I update whenever I get around to finishing a new chapter. I go at my own pace. It isn't very fast, but it is steady.

_Darkraven05:_ I don't think she was just feeling a little. Loneliness is a very powerful feeling. Unlike many other feelings, however, it's usually very quiet. The only reason Beast Boy notices Raven's loneliness is because her powers cause her to express it with more than tears. I didn't mean that her mother was dead. However, I don't think Raven could go to her mother to chat. Even in The Prophecy, she seemed reluctant to talk to her mother about her problems. There was a clear emotional distance between them. I don't know what their relationship was like in the comics, but based on the limited information in the series I'd say that Raven thinks of her mother as a teacher or a mentor, but not as a friend or even a parent figure. Anyway, I also thought the second chapter was better than the first. Yeah, I like my word choice too.

_Invader Johnny, darkdemon3592, BeastBoyandKingdomHeartsLover, Tammy Tamborine, mtm123:_ My ego thanks you. I thank you.

**Chapter Three**

Raven heard a knock on her door.

A familiar voice said, "Raven? Everybody's going out for pizza in a few minutes. You can come if you want to." She heard Robin's footsteps moving away from her door. At least it hadn't been Beast Boy.

Still, she had to talk to him sometime. She would have to apologize to him. She might as well find out just how pissed off he was. At least she'd be prepared.

-----

A little while later, Raven was wondering how she _could_ prepare herself.

She'd never seen Beast Boy this mad. When she walked out into the common room, Beast Boy just glared in her direction. Then he said to the others, "Guys, I actually don't feel very hungry. I'm just going to stay here."

His anger was so obvious that neither Cyborg nor Robin made any effort to convince him to come. It was only Starfire's oblivious insistence that had compelled him to come, and Raven could see that he resented it.

Now she was sitting in the car with him. Not next to him, as she usually had the dubious honor of doing. Instead, he was sitting next to a very perplexed Starfire, who had no idea why he had asked her to sit next to Raven but had been happy to comply. Of course, she was very pleased to have to opportunity to talk to Raven on the car ride.

Starfire talked excitedly to Raven about the marvelous taste of pineapple, anchovy and mustard pizza, as well as the competition of Glorthmack on Tamaran, which Raven didn't really understand but thought had something to do with screaming loudly while trying to be the first one to catch a disgruntled Bgörlk.

Beast Boy, meanwhile, was staring silently out the car window.

-----

Things didn't get any better at the restaurant. Instead of taking his normal seat next to Raven, Beast Boy sat down across from her, in Cyborg's seat. Cyborg didn't even try to force Beast Boy back to his own seat; he just sat down in Beast Boy's chair.

Raven was sure he'd cheer up a little when the pizza came. He didn't. Beast Boy only nibbled at it. Next to him, Starfire enthusiastically smothered her slices of pineapple and anchovy with French's mustard while discussing the finer points of wrestling a wild Bgörlk. Raven got the impression that the most important part was not being impaled on any of its nine tusks while somehow getting a hold of its two thorned tongues, but she could be wrong. She hadn't been listening very closely.

Beast Boy still hadn't said a word.

-----

The ride home was the same as the ride to the restaurant, except Starfire had finally figured out that something was wrong.

The occupants of the car settled into an uncomfortable silence, punctuated only by the noise of the engine and the horns of other, louder automobiles.

-----

When the car finally arrived at the tower, Raven heaved a huge internal sigh of relief. Too soon.

"Hey guys, if you don't mind, I'm just going to crash in my room," said Beast Boy, dejectedly, "I'll see you all later."

As Raven was about to follow the rest of the team up the stairs, Robin called her back. Raven sighed.

Robin started, "Raven, I don't know what's going on between you and Beast Boy, and you don't have to tell me. Still, I think I have to tell you that you need to resolve it. Not just for you or Beast Boy, either. The team needs to work together _as a team_, and we wouldn't be able to do that right now."

Raven opened her mouth to cut him off, but he held up his hand. "I don't care how you do it, but somehow you need to work this out. I know that Beast Boy can be annoying – we all feel that way sometimes. But-"

This time Raven did cut him off. "Robin, it wasn't Beast Boy's fault. It was mine."

Robin nodded.

"I'm going to go up to his room now. If he's willing to speak with me, I'm going to apologize."

Robin smiled. An apology from Raven was a rare occurrence, and he couldn't remember her _ever_ apologizing to Beast Boy. He simply said, "Thanks."

-----

Beast Boy opened his door. He walked over to his bed and lay down.

Why had Raven had to go and do that? He hadn't done anything. He was just going to give her the book. Why did she have to be such a jerk about it? Of course, she was always being sarcastic and stuff, but that was different. That was kind of funny, and everybody knew she didn't mean it. At least, they thought she didn't mean it. But this time, she'd just gone off for no reason. She just assumed that I was there to piss her off, or something.

Of course she thought that. Face it Beast Boy, you _can_ be kind of annoying. Raven just thought you were there to crack jokes or something.

-----

Raven tensed as she lifted her hand to Beast Boy's door. She knocked.

"Yeah?" came Beast Boy's voice from his room.

"It's me… Raven. I just came to say…" she sighed. "I just came to say I'm sorry for getting angry at you. I shouldn't have just assumed that you were there to… to do whatever you usually do. Anyway, I'm sorry."

Raven stood there for a moment, and then began to walk away.

She heard a door open behind her. She turned around. Beast Boy was standing in the hallway.

"Raven?" he said.

"You heard what I said?" she asked.

"Yeah. Look, it's okay. Don't worry about it," he said, walking up to her.

Raven looked at him quizzically. "You're still mad at me," she said.

Beast Boy shook his head. "Yeah, a little, but I'll get over it."

Raven looked at him for a second, then said with a slight smile, "Good, because I really don't feel like apologizing again."

"Okay," said Beast Boy. He smiled for a second, then frowned again as he remembered what he had meant to say. He looked away from Raven's face as he said, "Um, Raven I know I can be kind of… annoying sometimes." He glanced back at her face. She looked surprised; her gaze was curious, but not irritated. He looked away again. "Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I guess I realized that I'm a pest sometimes, so I can sort of see why you got mad at me. So, sorry I guess."

"Don't be," said Raven in her typical monotone. Beast Boy looked up. "You're _Beast Boy_. That's what you do. It can be annoying, but mostly I'm used to it."

"Thanks, Raven," he said sincerely.

She shook her head. "Besides, I always welcome the opportunity to practice my sarcasm," she added with a shy smile.

'Beautiful,' Beast Boy thought. 'She's beautiful when she smiles.'

Raven turned around and started walking back in the direction of her room.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Beast Boy called after her. "Did you forget it's movie night?"

Raven stopped walking, and Beast Boy heard a loud sigh. "Fine. Starfire didn't pick this one, did she? That documentary on the anatomy of flies was one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen," she said as she turned around. She stood there for a moment, giving Beast Boy time to catch up to her.

Beast Boy shuddered. "Ew, no," he said, as they walked side by side toward the common room. "It's _way_ more disturbing than that. You know the guy who directed Wicked Scary?"

Ravens eyes widened suddenly. "Are you going to tell me what I think you're going to tell me?"

Beast Boy smiled mischievously. "Yes."

**Author's Note:** This one was about the same length as the last chapter, which is okay by me. I don't think I'll ever drop below a thousand words. That just wouldn't be enough.

I had a really hard time writing this. I hadn't been able to watch any episodes recently, so I had lost a sense of what the characters were like. Makes it hard to write a story when you don't know how your characters should act, eh? I wrote this chapter with an ending that was almost completely OOC, so realized I had to refresh my memory. I went and watched "The Lost Episode" on postopia(dot)com. The code is punk25, by the way, if you want to watch it but haven't been able to. It might not be the best Teen Titans episode, but it renewed my feel for the personalities of the Titans.

Also, I started school, plus I got the entirety of Cowboy Bebop on DVD and watched all the episodes I hadn't seen yet, which was at least ten. It's a really wonderful anime. So, yeah, I had a busy time. Still, I'm sorry I didn't update sooner. I can't promise I won't do it again, but I'll try not to.

Yeah, I mention twice in this chapter that Beast Boy usually sits next to Raven. This is actually true. I wasn't sure of the typical seating arrangements, so I looked back at screen shots from some of the episodes. In "Final Exam" it shows the team eating… something (I still haven't seen that episode), and in "Betrayal" it shows the whole team in the car together. Both times, BB is sitting next to Rae. Completely coincidental? Maybe, but I think not. Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

If you're feeling kind, please review. If you're feeling lazy, don't.

Au revoir!


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